226                   Corynebacterium equi in a She-Buffalo

                              THE IDENTITY OF THE ORGANISM

Morphology.—Morphologically the organism grown on solid medium,
appears as short rods, mostly straight, occasionally slightly bent, with rounded
or clubbed ends. Most of them are small, almost ovoid, approaching the
spherical quite frequently. It is Gram-positive, non-motile, non-spore-forming
and non-capsulated. In broth-culture the bacillary form is more pronounced
than the coccoid.

Cultural characters.—Grown on plain agar plate, colonies are raised
and circular, with entire margin and moist and shining surface. They are
fawn-coloured and slimy in consistency. The colonies coalesce and tend
to run down and accumulate at the bottom of the slant. If stored at the
ordinary room temperature and exposed to light, after an incubation of
twenty-four hours at 37°C., the colour of the growth gradually deepens,
becoming salmon-pink.

In broth, growth is manifested by an uniform turbidity with a slight
granular deposit at the bottom which disintegrates completely on shaking.
The deposit develops a faint fawn colour after two or three days. Fre-
quently a ring of granular growth on the surface is also noticed.

It grows aerobically as well as under micro-aerophilic conditions, but
growth under anaerobic conditions, if any, was not noticeable.

The biochemical and other properties are tabulated below (Table I)
along with those of C. equi, for comparison :—

                                        TABLE I